Build a team that delivers — not just a group that meets.
High performance teams don't happen by accident. They're designed, nurtured, and measured against the right things. This cohort gives your team the language, the structure, and the discipline to get there.
The 8 characteristics of high performance teams
These aren't aspirational values. They're observable, practised behaviours that show up in how the team works every day.
Highly Focused
For example: task prioritisation. HPTs are ruthless about what matters most. They define, protect, and revisit their priorities — so energy is directed at what will move the needle, not scattered across whatever is loudest or most recent.
Honest and Kind
For example: candid conversations. High performing teams tell the truth — about performance, about problems, about how people feel. The candour is matched with care. Feedback isn't weaponised; it's offered as an investment in the person and the work.
Explore New Experiences
For example: iteration and pivoting. HPTs treat every sprint, project, and setback as data. They're not wedded to the original plan. They build, learn, and adjust. The willingness to pivot, when the evidence calls for it, is a sign of maturity — not indecision.
Purposeful
For example: good documentation, tidy project management. Everything this team does has a reason behind it. Their work is captured, structured, and legible to others. Backlogs are groomed, decisions are documented, and the project history tells a coherent story.
Transparent Ways of Work
For example: shared drives, open communication. The team operates in the open. Work lives in shared spaces, not inboxes. Status is visible without having to ask. Communication is structured around clarity, not volume.
Respect Colleagues
For example: building with the 5 pillars of trust. HPTs extend trust before it's earned, because trust is the precondition for speed — not the reward for it. They assume positive intent, cover for each other, and protect the team's reputation inside and outside the organisation.
Value Divergent Views
For example: mirror positions and ask questions. The best teams don't just tolerate difference — they build for it. When your team spans disciplines, functions, and thinking styles, the quality of decisions improves and the blind spots shrink.
Always Learning
For example: doing courses or sharing podcasts. HPTs stay curious. They invest time in retrospectives, experimentation, and connecting with innovation initiatives — because they know the next challenge will require capabilities they haven't built yet.
Team Setup
The stages every team moves through — from forming to flying.
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01
Team Member Onboarding
Bring new members into the team's culture, charter, and ways of working — before they get lost in the delivery.
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02
Form & Reform Teams
Deliberately assemble the right people for the right purpose. Revisit composition as the work evolves.
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03
Boundaries & Behaviour
Establish what's acceptable and what isn't. Name the norms so no one has to guess — or be surprised.
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04
Structure the Project
Break the work into phases, milestones, and dependencies. Make the path visible before the team starts running.
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05
Define Responsibilities
Map who owns what. Shared responsibility without individual accountability is a recipe for nothing getting done.
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06
Team Cohesion
Build the relational fabric — through 1-to-1s, shared language, and deliberate investment in how people connect.
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07
Outplacement
Handle exits well. How a team manages departures says more about its culture than almost anything else it does.
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Team Cadence
The habits and rhythms that separate teams who talk about high performance from teams who actually achieve it.
One to Ones
The team lead meets with each person for 15 minutes a week. Three questions drive every conversation:
- How are you — really?
- What is working and what is not working?
- What can I unblock?
Make the Team Charter a living document and put it into practice.
360 Degree Visibility
Everyone on the team knows what everyone else is working on. Visibility is not surveillance — it's the foundation of coordination and trust.
- Stand-ups create accountability and momentum.
- Digital board reviews create visibility.
- All meetings need agendas and prep.
Tools
The right tools, used consistently, make the team's work legible — to itself and to the organisation around it.
- Map dependencies.
- Create a roadmap with milestones.
- Align with other teams on delivery.